After watching Tuesday night's MLB all-star game where the some of the pitchers and players were mic'd up and talking while playing, Toni has written an interesting piece that i recommend you read here:
Reavis wrote:
Both sports—track and baseball—have long been tethered to their pasts, defined by records, nostalgia, and a reverence for tradition. Yet, each has also faced a rupture:
For baseball, it was the Steroid Era (circa 1994–2004) that strained its heroic mythos.
For track and field, the disruption arrived via technological innovation, ushered in by the Super Shoes revolution post-2016.
These shifts left both sports at odds with their histories—unsure how to reconcile yesterday’s legends with today’s realities.
But last night, at the 95th MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta, baseball offered a glimpse of something fresh. Clayton Kershaw, mic’d up while pitching live, let fans hear the game from inside the storm and atop the rubber:
It was electric—not just for what it revealed, but for how it collapsed distance. It gave the audience the thrill of proximity: thought, instinct, action—all happening in real time.
While, I've seen ESPN mic up players before, I too thought it was wild the pitchers were mic'd up while they were pitching. I was blown away it didn't really mess up their concentration. That being said, I disagree with his conclusion that seems to imply if track starts mic'ing up players it will make track more popular.
Reavis wrote:
The future of track isn’t just faster splits or lighter spikes. It’s a voice. Emotion. Presence. That’s how you bring the public back—not just to watch, but to its feet.
I disagree and have never felt that any gimmick like this or more storytelling on broadcasts is the key to making track popular. The problem with that theory is if all sports start interviewing competitors mid competition then it will be commonplace and you aren't ahead of any other sport (and by the way, NBA players are interviewed mid game during breaks all the time, I"ve never seen a track field eventer interviewed between jumps).
Along those lines, I've never bought into "If only the tv broadcast would let us know the athletes' stories, then track will skyrocket in popularity." Are you implying that the track athletes' stories are somehow inherently more interesting than other athletes' stories? "If only track athletes start doing the fashion walk," then track will rock.
I'm not saying track shouldn't do what other sports are doing but I don't think it willl help us that much.
That being said, I've always thought it would be quite easy to interview a marathoner at the halfway point mid-race. That would be cool. So I'm for our sport to start doing some interviews mid-competition (how about interviewing Mondo when he' ssitting out like 8 jumps) but don't think it will change too much.